Queens District Attorney Richard Brown (Photo: Rick Kopstein/NYLJ)

After 27 years in office, Queens District Attorney Richard Brown, who is currently New York City's longest-serving district attorney, has announced that will not seek re-election this year.

The announcement caps off a long tenure for the 86-year-old Brown, a Democrat, in which he was elected to seven terms without serious opposition, if any at all.

Through Brown's tenure, crime rates plunged to historic lows throughout the city and police and some prosecutors have shifted away from law enforcement tactics deployed during the crime waves of the 1980s and early 1990s, but now seen by many as heavy-handed.

“As I finish my tenure as Queens district attorney, I will continue to seek innovations to help all of our 2.4 million residents and ensure that I leave my office dedicated to the standard of excellence which has been our hallmark,” Brown said in the statement. “While it is difficult to say goodbye, I am comforted by the knowledge that I leave a legacy of accomplishment, excellence and government at its best, for which anyone can be proud.”

But Brown's office has stood athwart some of the reforms that his counterparts in other boroughs have implemented to take a lighter touch on fighting crime, such as prosecution of low-level offenses like marijuana possession and turnstile jumping, and has spoken out against planned closure of the jail complex on Rikers Island.

And even before Brown announced Wednesday that he would not seek an eighth term as his borough's top law enforcement official, potential candidates had already begun to line up for what may be one of first competitive races for Queens DA in a number of years with promises of bringing change to the office such as creating a dedicated wrongful conviction unit, a change that Brown has long opposed.

Brown was admitted to the bar in 1956 after obtaining his J.D. from the New York University School of Law and was elevated to the bench in 1973. He was elected to the state Supreme Court in 1977, left the bench the following year to serve as counsel to Gov. Hugh Carey, and returned to the bench in 1981.

Gov. Mario Cuomo appointed Brown as Queens DA in 1991 after John Santucci retired before completing his term; Brown won his first election to the seat later that year.

In his statement Wednesday, Brown said that during his time in office he achieved his goal of elevating the professionalism of the office by hiring staff based on merit rather than their political connections. He also touted his office's role in the creation of specialty courts, such as one of New York's first drug courts, and the formation of an Office of Immigrant Affairs to help immigrants deal with the criminal justice system.

Arnold Kriss, a criminal defense attorney and a longtime friend of Brown's who managed his first campaign for DA, said Brown has endured in office because he blends talent with likability. 

“He believes in justice and honesty,” Kriss said. “That is really what it's all about.”

Brown, who suffers from Parkinson's disease, had kept observers uncertain over the past several months as to whether he would seek re-election.

Among those who have officially declared their candidacies are Queens Borough president Melinda Katz, City Councilman Rory Lancman and Gregory Lasak, a recently retired justice on the state Supreme Court in Queens.

A spokeswoman for Brown's office said that an endorsement for one of the hopefuls is “not forthcoming at this time.”

Mina Malik, a former Queens prosecutor who is now the deputy attorney general for the Office of the Attorney General for the District of Columbia, said through a spokesman that she has been encouraged to run and that she is discussing the possibility with her family.

Malik is of South Asian and Hispanic dissent, while Katz, Lancman and Lasak are white. Judge George Grasso, who supervises the Bronx Criminal Court, has reportedly expressed interest in running for the seat, but a court system spokesman said that it would be premature at this point for him to announce his candidacy.

Additionally, three other hopefuls have submitted answers to questionnaires from the Queens branch of the Democratic Socialists of America seeking the group's endorsement for a run for DA.

They are Tiffany Caban, a public defender with New York County Defender Services; Jose Nieves, a former Brooklyn prosecutor; and Lorelei Salas, who serves as commissioner of the city's Department of Consumer Affairs.  

While potential candidates for the seat come from a variety of backgrounds, many have said they would bring progressive reforms to the office, such as ending cash bail.  

Bishop Erskine Williams of the New Seasons Family Worship Center in Jamaica, Queens, who has endorsed Lancman in the race, said Brown was “good for his time” and stuck to the letter of the law, but said that he has become “out of touch with what's going on in the community.”  

“We need a proactive DA, a person that has their finger on the pulse of what's going on,” Williams said.

Read more:

Queens BP Melinda Katz Announces Run for DA, Lays Out Progressive Agenda

Lancman, Launching Queens DA Run, Lays Out Reform Agenda

Queens Judge Set to Retire From Bench, Fueling Speculation of 2019 DA Run